Friday May 5th, 2011 – According to reports by the website Green Correspondents, labor activist Mansour Osanloo’s physical condition had deteriorated so badly that prison officials were forced to transfer him to an outside hospital. Osanloo was reportedly hospitalized as a result of acute cardiac distress. This is not the first time that Osanloo has been transferred to the hospital as a result of his heart condition and the extreme and inhumane pressure exerted upon him while incarcerated.

On the occasion of International Workers’ Day [May Day], Osanloo published an open letter in which he referenced his acute physical distress and the inhumane and medieval pressures exerted upon him and his cellmates at Rajai Shahr prison.

It looks as though by ignoring the acute physical condition of political prisoners behind bars and refusing to take their medical treatment seriously, Intelligence Ministry’s interrogators seek to eliminate these prisoners, or at minimum cause them to suffer. The last prisoner exposed to such methods by Intelligence Ministry’s interrogator’s was the late Mohsen Dogmehchi*, who lost his life as a result of lack of medical treatment while behind bars.

A number of political prisoners with physical ailments, such as Mashallah Haeri, Shir Mohammad Rezai, Mohammad Sadigh Kaboudvand, Kobra Banazadeh, Amir Khizi, Farah Vazehan, Isa Saharkhiz, Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, and tens of other prisoners are suffering the same fate.

*Translator’s Note: Mohsen Dogmechi, incarcerated Iranian merchant suffered fromadvanced Pancreatic Cancer. Though his condition had deteriorated greatly and he was in extreme pain unable to eat or drink, the authorities of the Islamic Republic refused to grant him medical furlough and he died in prison on March 28th, 2011.